1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pattern-defect analysis equipment, pattern-defect analysis method, and pattern-defect analysis program for judging the criticality of a pattern defect occurring on the surface of a substrate such as an integrated-circuit board or LCD substrate on which a predetermined pattern is formed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a pattern defect occurring on the surface of a substrate such as an integrated-circuit board is detected as a difference image between a defect-occurring image on the inspection-target-substrate surface acquired using an optical microscope or electron microscope, and a no-defect-occurring image on the inspection-target-substrate surface acquired in advance. The equipment for detecting pattern defects (which, hereinafter, will be referred to as defects simply) with a high efficiency based on a defect detection method as described above is generally called a pattern-defect inspection equipment (which, hereinafter, will be referred to as a defect inspection equipment simply). Here, these defects occur and exist on the substrate such as an integrated-circuit board which is in its fabrication process.
The defect inspection equipment is used in such a manner that this equipment is integrated into a production line for fabricating the substrate such as an integrated-circuit board. For this reason, its function and performance resource is basically dedicated to an enhancement in the throughput of the defect inspection. Accordingly, the defect inspection equipment is limited into the detection of information such as position coordinate of a defect and size of the defect. Consequently, a defect review equipment is further used in order to acquire detailed information about the defect such as type of the defect.
Based on the information such as position coordinate of a defect and size of the defect provided from the defect inspection equipment, the defect review equipment magnifies the image of the defect, then acquiring the detailed information about the defect from this magnified image of the defect. The defect review equipment possesses such functions as, e.g., the following one: The equipment evaluates such data as shape, luminance, and variation in brightness of the defect in accordance with a predetermined evaluation criterion. Then, based on this evaluation result acquired, the equipment identifies the type of the defect.
In the practically-available conventional defect review equipment, however, there is the following undesirable tendency: Namely, attention is paid to the analysis of the defect itself, but no attention is paid to the relative relationship between the defect and some other circuit component. This undesirable tendency has made it impossible to analyze the relative position relationship between the defect and the circuit component such as a wiring formed on the substrate, although identifying the type of the defect or the like remains intact and executable. As a consequence, it has been found impossible to judge information such as the impact which the defect will exert on functions of the integrated circuit or the like to be formed on the substrate.
Despite these impossibilities, however, at the document level, as disclosed in, e.g., JP-A-2000-311924 and JP-A-2000-68342, the criticality and impact of a defect exerted on a circuit component are judged by analyzing the relative position relationship between the defect and a pattern to be formed on the surface of the substrate. According to these documents, the criticality and impact of a defect exerted on a circuit component are judged by judging whether or not the defect is in contact with the circuit component, or by calculating the distance between the defect and the circuit component. Here, this judgment or calculation is made based on the data on the position coordinate and size of the defect acquired by the defect inspection equipment, and design data of the pattern to be formed on the surface of the substrate.